Vikings win 18th consecutive county cross country championship

The Lakeside Vikings extended their championship reign to 18 years with a nine point win over Druid Hills on Tuesday at the Druid Hills Middle School Course.

Despite not having a runner finish higher than eighth the Vikings put five in the top 16 to cart home their 18th consecutive title 60-69 over Druid Hills.

Freshman Davis Stockwell finished eighth (17:31.71) and Will Smith-Purcell was ninth (17:32.02) to lead the Vikings.

Druid Hills got a two-three finish from senior Daniel Samuel (16:55.25) and junior Ray Lumb (17:08.49) to spur the Red Devils to a second place finish. The second place finish was the best for Druid Hills since taking the runner-up spot in the 2003 championships also won by Lakeside.

Stone Mountain finished third in the team standings with 87 points and won the individual title for the second consecutive season as senior Abel Abay with a DeKalb County season's best time of 16:44.07 to supplant his teammate Nahome Abera, 10th this year in 17:32.49, as the boys' champion.

Clarkston's Hussen Sadik, a junior, was fourth in a time of 17:13.87 and Southwest DeKalb senior Jacques Williams was fifth in 17:24.93.

Dunwoody's Adam Christopher (17:25.36) and Connor McKnight (17:30.25), both seniors, finished sixth and seventh to lead the Wildcats to a fourth place finish.

Junior Alex Cameron won her third consecutive DeKalb County girls'
individual title with a time of 18:50.76 to lead Dunwoody to a 27-35 win over defending champion Lakeside. It is Dunwoody's third title in four years having won it in 2009 and 2010.

Dunwoody took the fourth through sixth place spots in the race as freshman Ansley Heavern (20:00.78), senior Kailey Williams (20:02.81) and freshman Ann-Marie Sills (20:29:83) put the Lady Wildcats in the driver's seat.

Lakeside seniors Jenn Cora (19:25.04) and Hayley Keady (19:52.08) were second and third, respectively, to keep the Lady Vikings in contention to defend their 2011 title. Senior Victory Thompson was seventh for Lakeside in 20:36.54 and junior Shannon Hagopian ran a time of 21:14:39 good for 10th overall.

Dunwoody senior Erin Berger crossed the line in 11th to seal the win for Dunwoody with a time of 21:15.59.

Chamblee junior Maddy Wetterhall was eighth in 20:40.71 and Cedar Grove's Christian Pryor was ninth in 21:07.94 as the only two runners not from Dunwoody or Lakeside to finish in the top 10.